I have been advised that if i continue to let my plants grow they wont finish budding until late sept or early nov. I live in north florida so that would be a very bad thing because we usually get our first freeze in mid august. I have a couple months until then and i would like for them to finish budding before then. How can i force them to bud? they are outside plants and for all intensive purposes are in the middle of a field. I was thinking i could build a large wooden or steel box to put over them to keep them in the dark for 12 hours but that seems a little... rough. i dont want to burn them and it would get pretty damn hot inside that box. the sun is pretty strong here. i also considered using a blanket but thought i might have the same problem. can anyone suggest something i can do? my cousin told me that i could pull off the aple pulmera (spelling) stem but from what i know about weed that stem is going to turn into a fairly big bud. i dont want to loose it. any ideas? Just another newbie.
i have no clue what you said in your first post. something about a bucket and light and all... the light will not change very much before we have our first freeze. as far as putting a bucket on them that would have to be a pretty damn big bucket each one would already need a 20gallon size to hold it. that link didnt help me at all lol. thanks though.
well first u shouldnt ever get a freeze in aug down there. if ever...u get on in dec, jan and feb. maybe nov at the earliest but ur weed will be done well before that. strains also vary as to when they finish outside. age of the variety also puts another factor into the question. with all that said, it should start to bud around july 15'th. it should start to put out sex organs by then. and it should be harvestable around the mid sept or even earlier if it was an older plant that u put out. oct 1sh would be pretty late id guess. hope that helps.
i guess i dont really know what this is. u mean the apical meristem (am)...which would be the uppermost part of the plant? http://www.esb.utexas.edu/mauseth/weblab/webchap6apmer/6.1-1.htm backing up a bit... weed is an annual so typically annuals only grow one dominate am which would be the 'brains' or the head of the plant. by wacking the primal (first) am of an annual ...ur plant builds other am's. that is why we prune cuz we want lots of am. the more the merrier so to speak. but alas its not that easy and the plant needs a brain and the next dominate am will become the dominate am brain. so...lets say we wanna start our plant flowering early...for the sake of argument...which i dont think u need to to in this case. what u do to the dominate can easily start a chain reaction in the plant. if u can shut the light down on that dominate am...in theory u could maybe start the plant to budding earlier. a 'cap' of some sort over the dominate am for a few hours earlier in the day would certainly get ur plants to be flowering faster in the year. this could easly push a plant that is on the edge of time for flowering over the edge. but also remember there are genetics that really trigger what the time frame is for flowering. so a 'northern lights' would bud earlier in time of year than a 'thai' veri's. so u would really HAVE to know when ur plant flowers before u could even attempt this cuz u could be doing this for a long time before u actually get the timing right. and by then the plant could have already started the budding process and u just wasted a whole lot of trips to ur illegal stand. which gets to the critical question, "how to make my outside plant bud faster?" first get a faster growing lifecycle plant. some varieties just are faster than others. second. refer to the first its all about genetics. yea u 'could' turn ur plant to flowering faster but u would have to be fairly accurate with bud timing to begin the process on. u would also need to 'cap' it gently as well as accurately every day. my guess is that something like 2 weeks earlier could mabye be achieved. frankly its an interesting question that u bring up, especially up in the farther north/south of the world. ur plant will flower. its doing its own lifecycle. by wackin the top am off...yea maybe u are gainin some time but ur also losing the mack daddy of the plant. and in the long run...its best to just leave the damn thing along and let a fine wine do its thing and dont pick it before its time. one more thing...if u put out older seedlings or clones...they are more mature and prob. flower early than a lesses established seedling in the year. i cant prove it but ill betchya its true. hope that helps fyi...ive been smokin collected big fat calyxes off of lesser dominate am node stipules and im stoned
a couple of my girls look like they are already starting to flower and its only June 9th... they are about 4 months old now give or take. yes, apical meristem is what i meant to say, i guess i heard him wrong to say apel pulmera stem. i was pretty stoned after all it has been raining constantly for the past few days and they havent been getting as much light. as for making a trip over to see them, thats not a big deal because they are about 100 feet away. I am considering what you said and i am also curious if anyone can tell me how to take stem cuttings and grow new ones. i heard that growing them this way does lead to quicker budding and flowering and a shorted life cycle. I will post some pictures as soon as i get my lazy ass up and go take them. ive never done this before so these are my babies, i want to do it right. does the pungentness of the plants aroma have anything to do with the quality? ive noticed that the shortest and bushiest one, which is approx 3' tall has the most delicious stench ive seen on a plant in a while. also, can someone who looks at these pics tell me how i should prune them? i havent needed to prune them really because they gets tons of sun being outdoors but now their leaves are starting to overshadow as the tops of the plants get bushier and bushier. How soon will it be possible for someone to identify their strain beyond stativa/indica? will i need to wait until they finish budding to have someone tell me? also, how will i know when they are done budding? what if they are a strain that doesnt really form crystals on the buds?
If those begin to flower soon (which I see no sign of yet) they will probablly going to really strech fo a m.f. Like 3 times the size of now.Hope they are females. They gotta be getting just the right light cycle to induce flowering, but I don't know when or where is the best. Go indoor!
your plants look alright man. They should be fine. The only that smells the strongest will probably have the best high.
THE PLANTS LOOK GREAT! YOU WON'T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT A FREEZE. I LIVE IN JAX AND I THINK THE BIGGEST PROBLEM YOU MIGHT HAVE IS THEM GETTING TOO BIG. I NEVER GROW IT TOO CLOSE TOO THE HOUSE THOUGH. THEY FLY OVER ALL THE TIME AND YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT THEY'RE LOOKING FOR. GOOD LUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!
Cool. What are the chances i could find help here from another grower near me. I live in Callahan Always nice to know there is another laid back person around.
Already replied to your message with an email. i was considering doing clones but i dont know how. i was under the impression that if i were to take clones i would have to cut the stalk halfway down instead of at the bottom and that i would loose a lot of buds... Is this the only way?
Those plant are flowering. I saw the little buds starting and the white hairs...theyll be done in like 6-7 weeks...maybe. I dont know for sure becuase its all in the genetics...but those are buddin dude
definitely!!!!!!!!!!! wont be long now... no pinching or youll regret it!!!!. Ill send some pics of my babies when they start to flower. I've got about 30 clones of some thai and about 200 other plants out in the stix here and there and there beautiful. JUst got to keep the critters away. Had some probs with armadillos rooting my shit up but some chicken wire took care of that now I just have to deal with the bugs. I won't worry about them too much until flowering.